91. The Evolutionary Kickstart by the ”Gods” – Erich von Däniken

Over the last half century, probably nobody has had a more significant influence on alternative theories about humanity’s deep history than Erich von Däniken.

Today, there are a number of researchers, independent as well as tenured, who question the textbook narrative. But von Däniken has a very particular angle to it that many still hesitate to adopt, namely that extraterrestrial intelligence has had a crucial role in our evolution.

When Chariots of the Gods was published over 50 years ago, Erich von Däniken was crushed by the mainstream.

”Because in that spirit of time, of course, extraterrestrials were nonsense”, he says.

But large parts of the public have had a different view on the astonishing claims von Däniken makes. Over the decades, his now 45 books have sold 70 million copies, and many books have been made into films.

Stories about mighty ”gods” with different traits who in different ways have altered the course of humans are legion in hundreds of cultures all over the world. Many of these, if not most, refer to extraterrestrial beings visiting earth, according to Erich von Däniken.

”We are definitely a product of evolution. But all of our family members, like the gorillas and the chimpanzees, are still in the trees. Only we, from the same family tree, came further. Anthropologists say it was evolutionary luck. I say: In addition to evolution there was artificial mutation, and now we are a mixture between humans and extraterrestrials”, he says.

”We are copies of the ’gods’. This is all described in the holy texts, including the Bible.”

”And this is nothing new to us. We have tampered with evolution ourselves, for instance by grafting apple trees.”

The Mayan texts are a fascinating historic source.

”The starting point for a calendar is very important to every culture. The start of the very exact Mayan calendar is August 11th, 3114 BCE . What happened then? What was so important? In the Chilam Balam book it says this was the day the gods from the Milky Way descended ”

There are also numerous accounts of events that seem suspiciously much like encounters with flying machines and even journeys up above the earth plane, for example in texts like the book of Ezekiel and the book of Enoch.

Many ancient texts in the Hindu tradition also describe flying machines.

”And there is not one word about the development of technology”, says Erich.

He points out that every civilization needs raw materials, and there is no evidence that the deposits were depleted before modern humans began extracting them.

Erich von Däniken was raised as a Catholic (and he still believes in God), but already as a young man he had doubts about some of the biblical explanations. He began reading translated versions of the Sumerian cuneiform texts and other ancient texts.

He found astonishing similarities in the stories all over the world: So-called gods have come down from the heavens/the sky/the firmament. There has been interaction. Humans have asked the ''gods'' where they have come from. The latter have always pointed to the sky. And they all have said they shall return.

”Actually, the ETs are here already. Or rather, they never left us. Some are monitoring us.”

Slowly but steadily the spirit of time changes. Today there are a few academics, like anthropologists and space engineers, who dare to write about the possibility of extraterrestrial influence.

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